The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

Thursday, January 10, 2019

EU sends "strong signal," freezes assets of the unit and two of its staff

The European Union
on Tuesday froze the assets of an Iranian intelligence unit and two of
its staff, as the Netherlands accused Iran of two killings on its soil
and joined France and Denmark in alleging Tehran plotted other attacks
in Europe.

The move, although in part symbolic since
one of the men is in prison in Belgium, marks the first time the EU has
enacted sanctions on Iran since lifting a host of curbs on it three
years ago following its 2015 nuclear pact with world powers.

The decision, which includes designating
the unit and the two Iranians as terrorists, follows last year's
disclosure by Denmark and France that they suspected an Iranian
government intelligence service of pursuing assassination plots on their
soil. Copenhagen sought an EU-wide response.

"EU just agreed to enact sanctions against
an Iranian Intelligence Service for its assassination plots on European
soil. Strong signal from the EU that we will not accept such behavior in
Europe," Denmark's Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said on Twitter.
France, which has already hit the two men and the Iranian unit with
sanctions, has said there was no doubt the Iranian intelligence ministry
was behind a failed attack near Paris.

On Tuesday, the Dutch government publicly
accused Iran of the plots, as well as two killings in 2015 and 2017,
sending a letter to parliament to warn of further economic sanctions if
Tehran did not cooperate with European investigations.

The letter signed by the Dutch foreign and
interior ministers said Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, the
Netherlands and Belgium met Iranian officials to convey "their serious
concerns regarding Iran's probable involvement in these hostile acts on
EU territory."

"Iran was informed that involvement in such
matters is entirely unacceptable and must be stopped immediately …
further sanctions cannot be ruled out," the letter said.

Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged plots, saying the accusations were intended to damage EU-Iran relations.

The Iranian terrorist attack on French soil
"wasn't thwarted by chance," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at
the time, hinting that Israel had a role in preventing it.

Meanwhile, the decision to impose the curbs
was taken without debate at an unrelated meeting of Europe ministers in
Brussels and the asset freeze comes into effect on Wednesday, EU
officials said.

The Danish Foreign Ministry named the two
employees as the deputy minister and director general of intelligence,
Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, and a Vienna-based diplomat, Assadollah Asadi.
Their names are to appear in the EU's Official Journal on Wednesday.

Sanctions on the intelligence ministry,
which is under the control of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, are unlikely to change what the EU says are Iran's
destabilizing activities in Europe and the Middle East.

The deputy minister and director general of
intelligence are in Iran, while the Iranian diplomat was charged and is
being held by Belgian authorities. Neither appear to have assets in
France, which first imposed the asset freeze late last year.

But imposing economic sanctions on Iran, once the EU's top oil supplier, remains highly sensitive for the bloc.

The EU has been straining to uphold the
2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers that U.S. President
Donald Trump pulled out of in May. It has been less willing to consider
sanctions, instead seeking talks with Tehran.

Iran has warned it could ditch the nuclear deal if EU powers do not protect its trade and financial benefits.